Stella Snead (April 2, 1910 – March 18, 2006) was a surrealist painter, photographer, and collage artist born in London, England, who moved to the United States in 1939 to flee World War II.
[2] In 1940, Snead traveled by bus to Los Angeles where she was inspired by the landscape and indigenous cultures of the American West and Southwest.
[3][4] Snead spent most of her adult life moving between New York City, London, Taos, New Mexico, and India.
[6] In her autobiography, Snead claims that her parents' relationship was troubled due to what she deemed “dark moods” exhibited by her father.
[7] In 1936, Snead joined her only artists friend on the Spanish island of Teneriffe where they painted flowers in a private garden.
[7] Out of work due to mental illness, Snead’s mother supported her until she became transfixed by the notion of painting in her early twenties.
[6] After three years of independent study, Snead became a student at the Ozenfant Academy of Fine Art in London, England.
She studied there under the renowned French abstract artist Amédée Ozenfant and alongside fellow student and friend Leonora Carrington.
[8][6] The declaration of World War II in Europe spurred Snead’s move from London, England to the United States.
[3] In 1939, Snead arrived in New York, but remained only briefly, preferring to travel around the country, often hitching a ride on mail trucks.
[6] Since 1943, her work had focused on fantasy, with animals represented rather more often than people, for example, The Sulky Lion, which was very two-dimensional, with the background buildings out of scale, and Tiger in the Sky, which was similar, but more three-dimensional.
The catalog for this show had articles by Neil Zukerman, Whitney Chadwick, Saloman Grimberg, Stephen Robeson-Miller and Pavel Zoubok as well as text by Snead and included a comprehensive timeline of her painting career, childhood, and personal struggles.
[6] The piece was shown at a show arranged by Robert Metzger at the Aldrich Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut, in December 1985.